'Come forth out of Thy royall chambers, O Prince of all the kings of the earth! Put on London and Cambridge: AND CO. MACMILLAN AND 1864. The Right of Translation and Reproduction is reserved. PREFACE. I HAVE called these discourses 'Lectures,' not sermons. They are strictly readings on the Gospel of St. Luke. But they were addressed to a congregation. The ordinary rules of preaching were observed in the delivery of them; a text was placed at the head of each. It was chosen because much of the sense of the surrounding passages seemed to be woven into it. That I presume is the meaning of a 'text;' the justification for its use in the pulpit. It should always suggest, and in some sort compel, the study of the book from which it is taken; it should never be forgotten in the disquisition which is appended to it. When I revised the lectures, and prepared them for the press, I might, along with other alterations, have dropped these headings. But I was unwilling to give the book the form of a commentary, or to lose any of the links which connected the Gospel that is written with the Gospel that is preached. Why I felt this reluctance will be evident if I explain the object of the course, and the circumstances which suggested it. |